Cyber vulnerabilities to rise 25% in 2024, warns Coalition

The number of cyber vulnerabilities globally is predicted to jump by 25% in 2024, according to US-based cyber insurer Coalition, to total 34,888 vectors for both cyberattackers to exploit and for businesses to defend. Publishing its Cyber Threat Index 2024, Coalition says the total equates to 2,900 common vulnerabilities and exposures per month. Its research also reveals an increase of 59% in unique IP addresses scanning for remote desktop protocol, which is often used by companies falling victim to cyberattacks. “New vulnerabilities are published at a rapid rate and growing. With an influx of new vulnerabilities, often sprouting via disparate flagging systems, the cyber risk ecosystem is hard to track. Most organisations are experiencing alert fatigue and confusion about what to patch first to limit their overall exposure and risk,” says Coalition’s head of research Tiago Henriques. Coalition’s report finds about 10,000 businesses are running the end-of-life database Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and more than 100,000 are running end-of-life Microsoft SQL servers. Businesses using end-of-life software are three times more likely to experience a claim, Coalition warns, based on analysis of its cyber insurance policyholders in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. “In today’s cybersecurity climate, organisations can’t be expected to manage all of the vulnerabilities on their own; they need someone to manage these security concerns and help them prioritise remediation,” Henriques says, in particular referencing human-managed detection and response tools. It claims its honeypot sensors detected an activity spike 16 days before MOVEit issued a security breach notice. “These large-scale cyber events, like MOVEit or Citrix Bleed, could have been contained if businesses had dedicated managed detection and response (MDR) solutions in place,” the company says. “Coalition has first-hand experience demonstrating that MDR can reduce attack response time by 50% or more – a massive impact to help protect businesses from cyber threats,” says John Roberts, general manager, security, at Coalition. “We’re at the point where just setting and forgetting a technology solution is not enough anymore, and experts need to be involved in vulnerability and risk management.” While MDR technology detects suspicious activity, Coalition says experts can then intervene to isolate affected machines or revoke privileges. “Few teams have the resources to mitigate every emerging risk or respond to all anomalous activity, and most cannot afford 24/7 security. Threat actors know this and use it to their advantage,” the report says. “One way for security practitioners to work to ensure their networks are protected from fast-moving digital risks is with MDR. With MDR, businesses don’t need to worry about finding the resources or budget to support around-the-clock monitoring. MDR leverages the alerting and detection capabilities of endpoint detection and response with human threat hunters who can respond to alerts in real time.”

Cyber vulnerabilities to rise 25% in 2024, warns Coalition

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